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Wall of Separation

Trump Is Possibly Considering Yet Another Religious Right Favorite For An Administration Position

President-elect Donald J. Trump has been hosting a variety of people at Trump Tower in New York to discuss administration positions, among other things.

If there’s one consistent characteristic for his administration-related guests, advisors and appointees, it’s that many of them are horrible for religious minorities and religious freedom, as we’ve written before about Steve Bannon, Ben Carson and more.

West, who is a former Army lieutenant colonel, had been at Trump Tower earlier this month to meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence and Trump’s national security advisor appointee Gen. Michael Flynn (another islamophobe).

Many people have speculated that these meetings mean that West is advising Trump on national security, and when asked whether that was the case, West told reporters on Monday: “We’ll see when I get up there.”

As we’ve noted before, Trump has done nothing to ease the anxiety of religious minorities. With West as a possible advisor to Trump, the president-elect has thus far shown that he is not interested in stopping his toxic campaign rhetoric or becoming more inclusive.

Just Saturday, West posted a meme that hinted at his supporting genocide against Muslims. The post included a photo of Gen. James Mattis, who was appointed by Trump to serve as defense secretary, with the text: “Fired by Obama to please the Muslims. Hired by Trump to exterminate them.” in caps. Criticism was swift, and a member of West’s staff deleted the post and apologized, claiming it was posted without West’s consent.

If West can’t differentiate between Muslims and terrorists – or if he can, chooses not to and still wants to “exterminate” Muslims – he is neither qualified nor has any business advising Trump on issues that often deal with extremist religious terrorism.

But these are the kinds of people Trump is allowing within his administration, or at the least, within his inner circle. People who don’t respect the separation of church and state, spread misinformation about religious minorities and promote intolerance and hostility towards religious minorities are in Trump’s ears. That should worry those who care about our issues.

I attended the 2016 Values Voter Summit (a Religious Right gathering where privileged American Christians complain about their nonexistent oppression) in September, and I heard West speak in person. As I wrote after the summit, West said that he’s “sick and tired of hearing separation of church and state.”

Quite frankly, we’re sick and tired of attacks on religious freedom, and we won’t back down. We continue to defend church and state separation, and we continue to fight for religious minorities’ rights in the United States.